Notes and Editorial Reviews

A very special holiday celebration from SWR Radio! The southwest of Germany is home to many professional and amateur musical talents. Children’s and youth choirs, cathedral singing schools and chamber choirs, and instrumental ensembles and orchestras can be heard singing and playing throughout the Advent and Christmas season. Whether they are already well known or yet to be discovered—whether they are rendering classical sounds or traditional tunes—there can be no doubt about the enthusiasm of these musicians! SWR Radio and hänssler CLASSIC invite you to share in the musical celebrations of this magical time of year!

"The Musical Advent Calendar is based on the excellent idea of including an item for each day of December before Christmas. As in a real Advent Calendar the “pictures” are varied but seasonal and, as in the best Calendars, they may sometimes surprise but more often elicit a pleasant sigh of recognition. I gather that this is the most recent in a series of discs produced by South West German Radio, who broadcast individual items on the appropriate days. They showcase a wide variety of choirs and instrumentalists from the region with a strong emphasis on younger performers. As a demonstration of the pool of talent available in the region it is impressive. Maybe none of the individual performances is truly outstanding but it is good to hear that such a wide range of talented choirs, soloists and ensembles exists in the area. In the booklet the item for each day is attributed to a particular area, town or organization and presumably when they are shown on SWR Television appropriate pictures are included. It would have been good to have had something along those lines in the booklet, although it does give brief background information about the performers in German and English. Information about the music is much sparser, however. The sixth track for instance is simply described as an Allegro from a Concerto in C major by Vivaldi, leaving the listener to guess which one has been transcribed (rather well) for vibraphone and organ, and there is no indication that track nine is in fact part of Bach’s Magnificat arranged (rather ineffectually) for brass. As one of the features of an Advent Calendar can be to surprise the viewer, or in this case listener, perhaps this is no bad thing. I should also make the obvious comment that the contents of an Advent Calendar should be opened one at a time, not all at once as necessarily I have had to do. It is nonetheless enjoyable to hear as a whole even if this is not its main intention.

The contents of the disc do vary wildly in style and character. There are many charming examples of children’s choirs in a variety of music, items by very professional adult performers including the SWR Vokalensemble of Stuttgart, items by German pop artists singing Billie Holiday and Andrew Lloyd Webber idiomatically, and instrumental items. The latter include both the oddest items, such as the two I have mentioned already, and the most enjoyable, including the recorders on track 4. Overall this is a very mixed bag, obviously not intended for or suited to detached analytical listening but perhaps ideal as background for a family party. I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope that some enterprising British company will take up the idea with a similar seasonal regional collection. One other virtue of the disc is that part of the proceeds from it will be used to support aid projects for children in South West Germany."

Customer Reviews

Sign up now for two weeks of free access to the world's best classical music collection. Keep listening for only $19.95/month - thousands of classical albums for the price of one! Learn more about ArkivMusic Streaming